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Historic England have combined 30 years of archived aerial photograph mapping projects, making these freely available online, providing public access to thousands of historic landscapes.

Issue

Archaeological sites are routinely mapped and recorded in England, however access to a standardised dataset which could be used for national, regional, and local archaeological studies by a range of stakeholders has not been available.

Approach

Historic England, with help from various Historic Environment Records (HERs) worked to standardise their existing data. Thousands of sites were identified through analysis of over 500,000 aerial photographs, as well as detailed imagery developed from newer lidar data technology. The resulting map produced covers around half of England.

To make the data user-friendly, the analysed photographs and datasets were overlaid onto data from Ordnance Survey, available through the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement.

This included using tools such as OS Maps API and OS Open Names to further complement the map and add key details, such as place names and road names.

Impact

The map presents archaeological features not simply as isolated sites, but as components of complex, multi-period landscapes, allowing a greater understanding of much of England’s historic sites.

This open access data offers opportunities for local and central government, addressing issues such as planning and strategic development plans.

Additionally, the data has been used by members of the public to explore the history of their local area or other areas of interest.

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